


Eyes Don't Lie

by dontrollthedice



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Discovery, Gen, Hermitcraft-verse, Hurt/Comfort, grian and tango are half-siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:28:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29098050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontrollthedice/pseuds/dontrollthedice
Summary: When Doc had requested a couple DNA samples from him, Tango had handed it over with a laugh, knowing there wouldn’t be any particularly intriguing results from them.He hadn’t expected a sheet of paper with the words “DNA RESULTS - URGENT. MEET AT MY BASE” written on it in hurried handwriting to show up on his doorstep.
Relationships: Charles | Grian & Tango Tek
Comments: 24
Kudos: 221





	Eyes Don't Lie

**Author's Note:**

> cw: a fire is in a character's past

When Doc had requested a couple DNA samples from him, Tango had handed it over with a laugh. He had half-expected it; Doc had just finished some sort of DNA analyzer, and he would be itching to test the machine he had spent the last month on, after all (It probably also helped the other hermits had told him about their own participation. Everything made its way down the grapevine eventually). He had waved as he watched Doc fly away with the samples, knowing there wouldn’t be any particularly intriguing results from them.

He hadn’t expected a sheet of paper with the words “DNA RESULTS - URGENT. MEET AT MY BASE” written on it in hurried handwriting to show up on his doorstep.

“What the hell?” came out of Tango’s mouth before he could stop himself.

Impulse whistled and set an elbow on Tango’s shoulder. For a moment, Tango had forgotten they had just come back from their sheep farm. “I didn’t get anything like that when I sent my DNA in. You should probably get going.”

Tango had absentmindedly nodded at that, and before he knew it, he was two steps away from Doc’s lawn. This had to be a prank. There was nothing funky about his DNA, he was sure of it. He might as well just get this over with.

Doc approached him before Tango even saw where he came from. “Come in, Tango. I have news for you.”

Tango eyed the cross-section of Doc’s house exterior and snorted. “Nice entrance you’ve got there.”

But instead of laughing like he always did, Doc grabbed Tango’s wrist and led him into the base, where things didn’t look so incomplete.

Tango raised an eyebrow at that but moved along.

They walked until they reached a room decorated with wood and white concrete. A flurry of papers was haphazardly stacked in the back corner of the room. A couch and chair faced each other, but the couch appeared to already have an occupant.

“Oh, hey, Grian,” Tango called.

Grian offered him a lazy wave back but redirected his gaze towards Doc. “What’s all this about? I thought we were discussing my DNA results.”

“We are,” Doc said. He grabbed a stack of papers before taking a seat on the chair and gesturing towards the couch. “Tango, take a seat. Then we can get started.”

This was getting more ominous by the minute, but Doc probably didn’t have a singular grudge against both him and Grian, did he? Tango took a seat on the opposite end of the couch, waiting to be dropped into a pit of lava.

“Perhaps this is a personal question, but it’s important. What do you remember of your history?”

Tango frowned.

His memories of his history were all muddled together, behind a foggy cloud. He remembered a family: blond hair like him (though every head just a shade different), all brown-eyed. He had once been brown-eyed, too.

Tango didn’t remember much of his childhood—he suspected that was for the better. After all, his clearest memory from that time was hearing the screams of a child he knew he loved with all his heart growing more distant as he succumbed to the fire blazing through their village.

Fire. It had taken his eyes, and he had had to fashion himself a new pair with redstone. When Tango anchored himself back to reality, he found himself holding his hand over one of his now-red eyes. He set his hand back down on his leg.

War had its place on every server back then. The consequences stuck around for centuries.

He met Doc’s gaze and answered, “Not much.”

Grian shrugged, leaning back against the couch. “You have our DNA now, Doc. I’ll be keeping my secrets to myself lest you raise a clone army.”

“Oh, trust me, one Grian and one Tango are already enough to handle,” Doc murmured. He cleared his throat before either of the two could respond to that. “I suppose I won’t be getting any answers out of you, so I’ll move on. As you know, I had every hermit give me a DNA sample to run through my DN-GOAT machine,” Doc said. “There were some… interesting results with yours. Have a look at this.”

Tango accepted the stack of papers handed to him and sifted through. There were graphs, charts, blocks of words—all of it overwhelmed his brain. He opted to look up to Doc for an explanation. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Grian had chosen the same option.

“That’s all the information the machine got out of you. It’s too complicated for me to explain all of it, but I was reading through everything when I realized your DNA had a lot of… shall we say,  _ similarities. _ ”

Tango tensed.

This was not going where he thought it was going. There was no way.

Doc continued despite it all. “In fact, too many similarities for it to just be a coincidence. So I looked into it a bit further.”

Tango glanced over at Grian. His face was blank. Tango opened his mouth to joke about Grian looking more like a cod than usual, but the words died in his throat.

Doc fell silent for a moment, frowning down at the papers in his lap. He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and closed it again before looking up to meet their gazes. “Listen, there’s no easy way to say it, so I’ll come out with the truth. You two are half-siblings.”

Half-siblings.

This wasn’t real.

Grian coughed out a laugh and forced a smile on his face. “This—This has to be a mistake. I’m very certain I have no family left.”

“Do you not believe me?”

“I…” He took a panicked glance back at Tango. “You’re a smart man, Doc. Too smart for your own good sometimes. But everyone makes mistakes.”

Tango nodded. It would be one hell of a mistake, but bigger ones had been made before (especially, enthusiastically by him!).

“Very well,” Doc said. “I figured this might happen. Turn to the second page for me.”

They flipped to the second page, and Doc walked them through every page of the stack of paper, from alleles to concepts that made Tango’s head hurt trying to wrap his mind around. All throughout, Doc explained with more patience than Tango had ever seen from him before, his voice gentle and careful. By the end of the stack, there was no denying it: science had proved them to be half-siblings.

“Have I explained everything well?” Doc asked.

Grian stayed still. Tango nodded for both of them.

“Then I’ll give you some time to adjust to the information. You can go anywhere you’d like. I only ask that you accept the results I’ve given you.” With that, Doc stood up from the chair and walked out of the room.

And then there was silence.

Tango stared.

It made too much sense. On a superficial level, they had the same unruly locks of blond hair just a shade apart, the same mischievous grin, the same height on the shorter end; hell, even Grian’s eye color had been his at some point in time.

But it went deeper than that. How did they have the same chaotic energy their friends described? Why did they have the same timeline of memory repression? Why were they both so drawn to the color red? Why did Grian look so haunted at the sight of fire like he felt, yet why had they both embraced the power of fire despite it all?

Tango knew the answer. They both knew the answer.

In the middle of his thoughts, Grian had turned to stare back at him. He ran a hand through Tango’s hair, pinched Tango’s cheek, held onto his hand, all as if he was making sure Tango was still there. The blank expression on his face didn’t shift as he studied Tango’s face.

“I thought I watched you die,” Grian said quietly.

Tango shook his head and offered him a tiny smile. “Nope. Just got some sick eyes out of it.”

Silence.

Then Grian’s blank face shattered into the beginnings of a sob, and Grian threw his arms around Tango, tears wetting his shoulder.

Tango hugged him back with all the love he couldn’t give for all their years apart. Even with his half-brother in his arms now, the fear of losing him all over again nagged at him, burned through his heart. Before he knew it, tears were streaking down his own face as Grian sobbed into his shoulder.

They stayed like that for a while. He wasn’t sure how much time passed, but nothing mattered anymore. The brother he had loved so dearly in the past was here,  _ alive. _ The world could wait for a minute.

“We have a lot to talk about, huh?” Tango said weakly.

Grian’s answer was a tighter hug.


End file.
